Ship owners enjoy tax exemption on specified income derived from the operation of a Singapore-flagged or foreign flagged vessel under Section 13A and 13 F of the Singapore Income Tax Act (SITA).

A shipping operator who operates Singapore ships or foreign ships can enjoy exemption of specified income as a ‘shipping enterprise’ under Section 13A of the SITA.

The aim of Corporate Governance is to facilitate efficient, entrepreneurial and practical management that can deliver the long-term success of the Company. Corporate governance is about what the Board of Directors of a Company does and how it sets the values of the Company.

Registration is open to all types of ships which includes offshore vessels like oil rigs and floating platforms. The vessel should be less than 17 years old and classed with any of the nine recognised classification societies.

Section 2(1) of the Singapore Income Tax Act (SITA) defines a PE to mean a fixed place where a business is wholly or partly carried out including a place of management, a branch, an office, a factory, a warehouse, a workshop, a farm or plantation, a mine, oil well, quarry or other place of extraction of natural resources, a building or work site or a construction, installation or assembly project.

In a bid to make Singapore a shipping hub, various incentives were introduced to make it attractive to have shipping activities in Singapore. Essentially the provisions that govern the exemption of shipping activities in Singapore are found in Section 13A and Section 13F of the Singapore Income Tax Act (SITA).